Forgive
by MoniqueC
Summary: Post Season 7 Derek still hasn't forgiven Mereidth, but she isn't giving up on him or Zola, but when something unthinkable happens will Derek be able to forgive her in time to save her? The clock is ticking...
1. Chapter 1

I don't own Grey's Anatomy, any of its characters or rights, I just like embellishing on the story lines. Please read, hopefully enjoy, and review.

Zola was still in the custody of strangers.

Derek still wasn't talking to her, let alone looking at her.

She was overwhelmed with guilt about the Chief taking the blame for her.

She was pregnant, but she didn't know it yet.

4:30 am

Meredith stared in the bathroom mirror at her reflection, she was ghostly pale, with bags and dark circles under her eyes, she had beads of sweat forming on her clammy skin, and her once sparkling blues were now missing nearly all of their luster.

How did everything come to be like this, just a month ago, Derek and Meredith were eagerly working on the adoption papers for Zola, making tremendous progress on their clinical trial, and happily building their home.

Now Meredith felt so alone, she knew that Christina would be there for her if she needed her to be, but Christina and Owen were going through their own thing right now, and on the mend, she couldn't tear Christina away from the progress they were making.

Lexie, Alex, April, and Jackson were all working starting 18 hours ago, so she didn't want to bother any of them with her troubles, they were going to have a hard enough shift as it was.

Meredith was lost, but she knew she had to hold on, keep focused if she ever wanted Derek and Zola back again, and there was nothing in the world that she wanted more.

Finally, pulling her eyes away from the mirror Meredith ambled into the bedroom to put on her scrubs, as she pulled them up she realized that they were falling saggy down her slender form, when was the last time I ate? She thought to herself. Honestly, she couldn't quite remember, but at the moment that didn't matter, she was already late for work, she would grab something when she got there.

Grabbing her purse Meredith ran down the stairs and out the door to her jeep, racing towards work at a snails pace with all of the Seattle traffic.

6:00am

When Meredith finally pulled into her parking space at the hospital she jumped out of the car and immediately felt light headed, everything was spinning for a brief moment in time. "I really do have to eat something." She muttered to herself after regaining her balance and making her way into the hospital.

Once inside the doors Meredith ran into Bailey. "Good Morning." She said breathlessly, but Meredith received no kind words from Bailey who just shook her head and walked the other way.

Tears pricked at Meredith's eyes, did everyone hate her? She thought to herself as she forced the tears back, walking to the elevator and pressing the "up" button a little too aggressively.

9:22am

As Meredith stood at the nurses station signing a few charts, she caught sight of Derek down the hall, she forced a smile on her face, but the moment Derek saw her he changed directions and went the other way.

Meredith's shoulders slumped and for what felt like the millionth time that day, tears threatened to spill over Meredith's eyes.

Mark had been witnessing the whole thing, and walked up behind Meredith placing a comforting hand on her back. "It's going to be ok, he'll come around." Mark tried to reassure her. Meredith turned around to face Mark, and he was taken aback by her poor complexion. "I don't know if he will ever forgive me…I am unforgiveable." Meredith said in between sobs as she let herself break down.

"Meredith, if he can forgive Addison and I for what we did he can certainly forgive you for just trying to save a friend." Mark said matter of fact. "Thank You." Meredith squeaked out.

"On another note, are you feeling alright? No offense but you look like shit Meredith." Mark asked concerned.

"Oh…um…yeah I'm fine, I think I might have a little bug or something." Meredith said suddenly self-conscious of her appearance.

"Why don't you go home, I will cover for you for the day." Mark said trying to help out this woman who had actually helped him so many times before.

A little smirk came across Meredith's face, "_You _are going to cover for me?" She asked surprised. "Ok, you caught me, I was going to make Avery cover for you." Mark said laughing a little. Meredith just smiled and headed towards residents locker room taking him up on his offer. Halfway down the hall Meredith turned around and looked back at Mark. "Thank You Mark, I needed a friend today." Meredith said before heading back on her way.

Mark watched her walk away, even more concerned than he was before, she looked thinner, much thinner, was that possible, she was already a toothpick as it was. He needed to have a serious talk with Derek, this had gone on long enough.

9:47am

When Meredith reached the residents locker room another wave of dizziness cam over her, she clutched the wall for support, and then steadied herself once it had passed. Grabbing her purse, Meredith decided to just leave her car at the hospital and take a cab home, not trusting her bouts of vertigo while driving.

So quickly Meredith made her way downstairs, and haled one of the taxi cabs that were always lingering around the hospital waiting to be called. After giving the gruff looking cabbie her address, Meredith leaned back in the seat and shut her eyes, oblivious to the menacing way that the cabbie kept glancing at her in his rearview mirror.

10:13am

It wasn't too much later that Mark found Derek sitting in his office head in his hands. "Dude, this has gone on long enough." Mark said walking in and shutting the door behind him, before plopping down in the chair across from Derek.

"What are you talking about?" Derek snapped at him.

"Whoa, whoa!" Mark said holding up his hands. "Let me ask you a question, how is it that you can forgive Addison and I for cheating on you, but you can't forgive Meredith for trying to save the chiefs wife? She couldn't save her mother, she couldn't save Susan, and now there is a drug in an envelope that could help her save the chiefs wife, and you pretty much leave her for trying to save the last mother figure she has?"

Derek put his head back in his hands. "I don't know why I can't forgive her, I want to I do, but every time I see her, it just infuriates me back up again, and I don't know when that is going to pass, but I can't forgive her until it does. I can't even look at her anymore."

Mark stood up angry about Derek's stubbornness. "You're an idiot Derek, and you're going to hate yourself when you lose the best thing that ever happened to you." Mark said storming out of Derek's office.

10:40am

Derek took a deep breath and shook his head, throwing his pen across the room, why did everything always have to be so complicated.

Derek reached in his desk drawer and pulled out a frame that he had tossed in there weeks ago, it was a picture of he and Meredith standing on the ferry. She was looking at him with those intense blue eyes, that said that they were the only two people in the world.

Rubbing his face, Derek couldn't stand to look at the picture anymore and jammed it back in his desk, he just wasn't ready yet, he needed more time.

11:00am

Derek still couldn't get over his conversation with Mark, why was it that he couldn't forgive Meredith? Derek's thoughts drifted back to that day some months ago when he stood down at the lab reading Meredith's test results for the Alzheimer's gene…he had told her he didn't care what the results were…he had told her not to look, but he couldn't help himself, he had to know. He had gone down to the lab early in the morning and requested her lab results, and read them over and over again, she was positive for the gene.

There was no way he could tell her that, it would ruin her life, it would influence every decision she made, it would destroy her. He couldn't let that happen. That's when he became so passionate about finding a cure, things were going well, and she had ruined it. She had ruined his chances of being able to save her. That's why he was so mad. But could he be mad at her when all she did was try to save Adele?  
>The more he thought about it the more he realized that she most likely felt that she owed Adele, after what her mother had done to their family. Richard and Adele were just now starting to become that happy couple that they should have been years ago, and then Richard started losing Adele, and he started pressuring Meredith…there were just so many things to take into consideration, but the bottom line was that she should have trusted him enough to discuss what she was thinking.<p>

Derek began rubbing his temples as a headache made its way to the forefront of his head. All of this was becoming too much for Derek. The way he was feeling reminded him of that day so many years ago after Addison had come back, and Meredith told him that it was exhausting to hate him.

11:00am

As Meredith paid the cab driver and stepped out of the vehicle, she was surprised as the cabbie got out as well and rushed around to her side. She looked at him confused for a moment, until she felt something sharp and cold jabbing into her back. "Get in the house." The man ordered his voice cold and laced with aggression.

Meredith rolled her eyes, of course, this is how her life went, but then a light snapped in her mind, she couldn't give up now, she would fight whatever it took, she would fight for her friends, she would fight for Derek, she would fight for Zola, she would fight for herself.

With all of the voice she could muster up Meredith let out a blood curdling scream hoping to attract some attention in her direction. No sooner had the scream left her lips though, was the cabbies sharp knife plunging deep into her low back.

Meredith doubled over as the pain seared through her whole body. Now the man was shoving her in the house even faster, "You bitch!" He hissed into her ear. The man kicked open Meredith's door and shoved her down to the floor. "Where do you keep the drugs?" He demanded.

Meredith looked at him in confusion, "What drugs?" She panted trying to keep her breathing stable. "Oxy's, hydros, methadone! Where the hell is it? I know you're a doctor!" He screamed at her getting right up in her face.

"I don't keep any drugs here…" Then Meredith thought about it, the pain meds from Derek's surgery. "Wait, upstairs in the bathroom there is a full bottle of Oxycodone take that!" Meredith pleaded hoping that this would appease him enough to leave.

The man bolted up the stairs and began kicking open every door he passed looking for the bathroom, she could tell that he found it when she heard the sound of bottles and jars falling into the sink, and scattering on the floor.

Moments later the man was running back down the stairs, bottle in hand. "Where's the rest?" He demanded after popping three of the pills out of the bottle, not even bothering to drink water to wash them down.

"There is no more, but I have a small stash of cash in the den, please take that and go!" Meredith was begging, she would give him whatever she could to get this man out of her house.

He yanked her up by the arm, causing another bolt of pain to rip through her body. He forced her to show him the way, and pull out the cash box. There was at least about $3,000 dollars in the box, and this made the man very happy.

Seeing the smile on his face Meredith felt a since of relief, hoping that this was enough to make the man leave. "Thanks for your hospitality." He said in an evil tone as he walked past Meredith. She let out a sigh of relief but it was too soon, because a moment later the man was behind her with his knife to her throat. "I forgot, one more thing!" He said snickering as he slid the knife across Meredith's throat causing an instant waterfall of blood to come cascading down Meredith's body, which had now become limp and was falling to the floor.

"Thanks again." He said as he left her there to die.

The man adjusted the door so it looked like it was closed and raced to his cab and sped off. This had been a very successful cab ride he thought to himself.

11:33am

A few minutes after the man had left Meredith suddenly regained consciousness, but the pain in both her throat and back were unbearable and she was becoming weak from the loss of blood. She tried to think like a doctor, and with all the energy she could gather she felt the wound in her neck, it was somewhat shallow, he hadn't cut her major artery, that must be why she was still alive.

Knowing that she needed something to slow the bleeding Meredith felt around her for something, it was then that she felt the tassels of an old blanket on a chair near her. The blanket was heavy but it would do Meredith thought as she pulled on the tassels with all of her strength causing the blanket to tumble to the floor next to her in a heap. Then Meredith pulled the blanket over to her and pressed it as firmly as possible against her throat.

Then Meredith reached into her scrub pocket and retrieved her cell phone, thankful that the man hadn't noticed it in the first place. Feeling around the buttons, her vision going in and out Meredith pressed speed dial 1 which of course was Derek. She wouldn't be able to talk if he did answer but she prayed that he would know by the silence on the phone that something was wrong.

The phone rang once, twice, and then she could tell that he pushed the ignore button. Silent tears fell down her face, but Meredith was not going to give up, so she pushed redial again and again but each time the same response until she slipped back into unconsciousness.

11:35am

Derek looked down at his phone, as he missed call after call from Meredith. She had been doing this lately, calling him over and over again in spurts trying to get him to talk to her. He just didn't know what to say though. Why was this so hard from him?

Derek needed to talk to someone, this needed to get figured out, he needed to make some sort of decision, no matter what it was. Derek went to the one person who may understand. "Chief?" He said knocking on the door to what was once his office. "Derek? What can I do for you?" Richard asked.

"I don't know what to do about Meredith, I hate her right now!" Derek spat out as he kicked the leg of a chair in front of him.

"Derek, why can't you understand all of the pressure she was under to try and help Adele? Why can't you understand that she did this so I could have a future with my wife? Why can't you understand that she did this out of guilt for what her mother and I did? Why can't you understand that she didn't tell you, so as not to tamper with the trial even further?" Richard asked question after question calmly trying to see the light.

Derek plopped down in the chair. He stared off in the distance for a moment before answering. "I can't forgive her because she ruined my life. Richard, she has the Alzheimer's gene, what does that give me fifteen, twenty years before I start to lose her? And what will that do to Zola? She threw away her chance." Derek said finally getting it off his chest to someone else.

Richard put his head down for a moment at the news, and then his head shot back up. "Derek, there will be other trials, someone will find a cure. Meredith has time, you both have time, Adele and I didn't so Meredith gave us the best chance we could get." Richard said rubbing his head.

Derek looked closely up Richard and a small crack started to form in the wall that Derek had built around himself. Derek then glanced at the clock. "I have a surgery." He said blandly standing up.

As Derek was walking out the door he turned around and looked at Richard, "Thank You." He said before making his exit.

Richard hoped more than anything that Derek would forgive Meredith, and soon this had gone on long enough.

4:40pm

Meredith lay in a pool of blood barely conscious holding on with every fiber of her being. As her blood had spread out around her, it had pushed her cell phone just out of reach, and so now she was left there in agony to wait for her knight in shining whatever to come and save her. He would save her, she knew he would, she had a feeling, and her feeling tended to be right.

5:20pm

Derek had just finished up his last surgery, changed, and was walking through the parking lot on his way to the Porsche, getting ready to head up to work on the house while there was still a little bit of light out. As he neared his car he caught sight of Meredith's jeep out front, it was strange he had thought she wasn't at the hospital today, he hadn't seen her once. Lately, she had been practically stalking him outside of his surgeries, waiting for him to come out so she could try to talk to him, which he always refused. A pang surged through him for a moment at his coldness towards Meredith, but then he just kept walking and got in his car. She was probably playing the avoiding game now, trying a new approach.

Without giving it another thought Derek got in his Porsche and drove off towards the house he was building.

6:18am

Meredith was terrified, she didn't know how much longer she could hold on for, the pain was starting to subside and she knew that was a bad thing, she was slowly bleeding out. She had done everything she was able to in her position to slow the bleeding but it just wasn't going to be enough she needed to do something more. If she was serious about wanting to live, she needed to figure out something. A new bout of pain ran through Meredith's veins as she moved her body over slightly to reach her phone better. Triumphantly, she was able to grasp it between her fingers and pull it up to her face, the breath was seemingly knocked out of her though when she realized that her phone had died.

With energy that she should have been saving Meredith threw the phone, and it hit the desk. "Please someone…" She whispered to herself unable to talk.

It was then that Meredith noticed the clock hanging on the wall, it was 6:30am her shift should have started already, surely someone would notice her absence soon. She prayed that they would come and look for her.

Keeping hope alive Meredith worked on controlling her breathing, and kept positive that Derek would save her.

6:10am

When Derek pulled into the parking lot of the hospital he noticed that Meredith's car was in the same place that it had been parked last night, which surprised him because he didn't recall her name being on the list of residents working the dreaded 48 hour shift.

Curiosity getting the best of him Derek walked up to the blue jeep and lay his hand on the hood, it was cold as can be, she had never gone home last night.

This was a good thing though Derek thought, last night he had sort of come with terms with everything and was ready to talk it out, he wanted his wife back, he couldn't go on hating her anymore, especially when she didn't know the real reasons why he was mad.

Eagerly, Derek made his way into the hospital hoping to find Meredith before either of them got too busy.

6:36am

Once Derek had set his things down in his office, and put on his lab coat he walked over to the board to see if Meredith was in surgery.

He didn't see her name anywhere, he was sort of hoping that she would have been in surgery though, that way she would be easier to track down.

Derek noticed Mark leaning against the nurses station and decided to ask if he had seen Meredith. Just as he approached Mark and got his attention April came bounding up to him.

"Dr. Shepard?" She said tentatively, "Yes?" He said turning to face her. "I know, well…I know that things are a little weird right now…but ummmm….have you seen Dr. Grey? She hasn't shown up for her shift, and uh I was just wondering, you know, if you had seen her?" April was a nice girl, but sometimes it gave him a headache talking to her with all of her rambling.

"No, I haven't seen her. But maybe she slept in, in one of the on-call rooms, her car is still here from last night." Derek said not quite too concerned yet. Maybe she had been trolling for cases last night.

Then Mark piped in. "Wait her car is _still_ here, what do you mean by that?" Mark asked, stepping forward now.

"It hasn't been moved all night so I assume she is here somewhere." Derek said a little confused by Mark's sudden interest in Meredith's whereabouts.

"No, no, something is wrong. I sent her home yesterday morning, she was sick yesterday and looked pretty bad, so I had Avery cover for her." Mark said pulling out his cell phone.

Fear was the only emotion that Derek could feel right now, as he too pulled out his cell phone.

"Voicemail." Both Derek and Mark said at the same time. "Page her over the intercom." Derek suddenly ordered Kempner.

Immediately she rushed over to the nurses station and paged Dr. Meredith Grey to the OR board immediately.

7:10am

They had waited for Meredith to answer the page to the OR board, something really wasn't right. "Christina!" Mark said as he spotted Owen walking down the hall. "Call Christina!" Mark said a little disappointed that he hadn't thought of this sooner.

Owen heard this and came rushing over to them, "No don't call Christina, she's at home sick." Owen said a little bit of that being a lie. Derek knew the truth and immediately understood. "Ok, but is Meredith with her, or has she talked to Meredith?" Derek asked frantically.

"No, no, Christina hasn't had the energy to even get out of bed, let alone talk on the phone." Owen said a little piece of his heart breaking as he remembered what they had done.

"Oh wait, I will check the Residents lounge to see if her stuff is still there." Kempner said running off, Derek, Mark, and Owen in toe Mark explaining to Owen what was going on.

7:23am

When they reached the locker room and checked Meredith's cubby her purse and car keys were absent. Derek's heart sunk, what if she had run…what if he had pushed her so hard that she ran…

Derek sat down on the bench with his head in his hands.

Owen walked over to the window of the lounge and looked outside, and then he spotted something, a row of yellow.

"You said she wasn't feeling well yesterday?" Owen directed the question to Mark.

"Yeah, she looked like crap." Mark said remembering how pale and fragile she looked.

"Do you think she was feeling bad enough that she would have taken a taxi home?" Owen asked eagerly.

Mark thought back to her appearance for a split second and the way she wobbled a little bit when she walked.

"That is definitely a possibility." Mark said as Derek hopped up off of the bench.

"I'm going to the house!" Derek said flying out of the room. "I'm coming with you!" Mark chimed in as he ran with Derek down the halls to his office where he grabbed his car keys and bolted through the hospital.

Once they were all piled in Derek's car the practice Derek had going 125mph came in handy as he zoomed through traffic.

"She's going to be alright?" Derek asked Mark as he focused desperately on getting to Meredith's house.

"You know what she's probably still sick and just sleeping it off, didn't hear the alarm or something…" Mark said not really believing the words he was saying. He had a feeling too that something just wasn't quite right, and he prayed that he was wrong.

8:59am

When Derek pulled into the driveway of Meredith's house there was a light on in the bathroom upstairs. Instantly, both Derek and Mark felt better, that was a sign that at least she had made it home. Maybe she had the flu or something. Derek thought as they ascended the stairs to the house.

When they reached the door however, their feelings of comfort quickly vanished as they realized that the door wasn't really closed, it just appeared to be closed, in fact it appeared to have been damaged in some way. Derek shoved the door open in a panic and called out Meredith's name, "Meredith!" "Meredith!" Both Derek and Mark began to call as they started to run up the stairs hoping that Meredith was in the bathroom where the light was on.

9:01am

Meredith felt incredibly weak, she couldn't draw strength from anywhere in her body, she was falling in and out of consciousness frequently, and she felt so cold, but then something warmed her, the heat from her heart began to spread through her body and a faint smile began to crease Meredith's face as she heard Derek and what sounded like Mark coming to rescue her. Tears of joy were now falling freely down her face, the anticipation of them finding her in the den building.

9:04am

Derek swung the door to their bathroom open with a vengeance and was terrified by what he saw, pills, bottles, and tubes were scattered throughout the bathroom everywhere.

When Mark saw that Meredith wasn't in the bathroom he began searching all of the other rooms

Suddenly, a thought came to him and he started rummaging through the spread out contents of the medicine cabinet.

His fears increased tenfold when he realized that his oxycodone bottle was gone. Would she do it? Did he push her that far? Derek sat on the ground defeated, he had a feeling, he just knew that she must have done something stupid and now he wasn't sure he wanted to find her, what if he did find her and she was gone, there was a large time frame where she hadn't been seen. If she did…that…he would never be able to forgive himself.

Just then he heard Mark yell at him from the hallway. Derek slowly walked to Mark scared that Mark had found her, "Derek is it usual for everyone to leave their doors wide open?" Mark said pointing out the fact that ever single room had its door burst wide open. "No! The doors are always shut" Derek said suddenly snapping himself out of his former thoughts.

9:10am

Minutes seemed like an eternity to Meredith as she heard Derek and Mark searching for her upstairs, she needed to make some sort of noise, do something to let them know that she was in the den, before they left thinking she was gone.

With every last ounce of energy that Meredith could muster, and a little bit of adrenaline, Meredith scooted herself a little and positioned herself to kick the chair next to her over. It would take everything she had but it would be worth it if she could get their attention.

One, two, three…she counted to herself as she shoved her leg into the chair causing it to topple over. The exertion of energy and the pain in back and throat caused Meredith's vision to blur and call her to the darkness, but she forced herself to stay conscious, to show Derek that she hadn't given up, she _Needed_ to show Derek that she did not give up!

9:12am

As Derek and Mark continued searching upstairs for Meredith in every nook and cranny they stopped dead in their tracks at a loud noise coming from downstairs.

Instantly they both bolted down the stairs taking them 4 and 5 at a time. "I think it came from the den!" Derek said already halfway there.

When Derek pushed the door open he immediately felt sick, there lay his Meredith in a large pool of her own blood, staring back at him, tears in her eyes, pale as a white sheet, but somehow with a tiny smile gracing her lips.

"Oh God Meredith!" Derek cried as he fell down at her side, noting that his khaki pants were immediately soaked in Meredith's blood. He wasn't in doctor mode right now, he was stuck in shock, in terrified husband mode.

"What happened?" He asked as he stroked her forehead, smearing it with the blood that had gotten on his hands.

Meredith gulped as best she could, "I…didn't…give…up…love…you!" Meredith mouthed before giving a deep sigh of exhaustion.

It wasn't a moment later that Mark was in the room, "Derek what are her injuries?" Mark asked stepping over both Derek and Meredith and going on the other side of her. Gently, Mark pulled the blood soaked blanket from over the top of Meredith and both and Derek gasped when they saw that Meredith's throat had been cut.

Meredith winced in pain as the blanket was pulled from her throat. "Back." Meredith managed to mouth before shutting her eyes against the pain she fought off for so many hours now.

Mark gently rolled Meredith over to reveal a deep stab wound in the left lower flank of her back. "We need to get her out of here now!" Mark said assessing the amount of blood they were sitting in. "Derek call and ambulance!" Mark ordered knowing that Derek was in shock and wasn't taking any of this in, just staring in Meredith's eyes.

"Derek!" Mark demanded as he hit Derek on the shoulder. This seemed to bring Derek back to reality. "No we don't have time for an ambulance, I'll drive!" Derek said pulling out his car keys.

"You're in no shape. I'll drive you just apply pressure to the wounds in the back seat!" Derek reached out and put a hand on Mark's shoulder. "You have to get us there in time!" Derek pleaded. "I will." Mark said taking Derek's car keys, Derek scooped Meredith's fragile body into his arms and ran with her out to the car.

"You're going to be alright Meredith I promise!" Derek said meekly as he set her in the back after Mark folded down the backseats. Then Derek crawled in after her. "Go!" Derek ordered as Mark zoomed off through the streets.

"Sorry…" Meredith tried to mouth to Derek as they raced through the streets of Seattle. "Meredith you have nothing to apologize for, I understand why you did it, it's me that should apologize! I'm so sorry Meredith, if I would have…if I didn't…you wouldn't be…I would have…been there for you!" Derek was sobbing now as Meredith withered in front of him.

"Love…" Meredith started to say before her body went limp and she fell unconscious again. "Meredith? Meredith!" Derek screamed immediately checking for a pulse. "Derek?" Mark asked terrified from the front seat, not pealing his eyes away from the road as he drove 130 through the freeway in and out of cars." Derek looked up at Mark for just a second. "She has a pulse it's very weak though." Derek was frantic.

"Derek you need to call ahead, they need to be prepared for us." Mark said thinking back to the day when everyone was standing outside waiting for Callie after her accident. They would be able to save Meredith, they had to.

Derek quickly pulled out his blackberry and dialed Richard's number.

10:30am

"Derek, where the hell are you? I'm missing a resident and two attendings!" Webber was furious.

"Richard it's Meredith, she's been attacked." Derek said solemnly looking down at Meredith's tiny frame.

"She has a deep stab wound to the lower left flank, and Richard…her throat has been slit. She's lost a lot of blood we are on our way in there now, get everyone ready along with O+ blood, lots of it." Derek ordered finally going into doctor mode again.

Richard didn't ask any more details the moment he hung up he began rapidly getting a team together.

"Chief what's going on?" Bailey asked as they stood lined up outside in the ambulance bay. "It's Meredith Grey, she's was apparently attacked. Derek and Mark are on their way in with her right now. She was stabbed, and…her throat was cut. She has lost a significant amount of blood."

Everyone gasped. Hadn't they all been through enough? Bailey instantly felt guilty for her cool attitude towards Meredith yesterday morning.

Lexie and Alex had not been called down to assist, they would be too close to this.

Impatiently, Richard, Callie, Owen, Teddy, and Jackson waited for them to pull in.

11:12am

Mark pulled into the ambulance bay with squealing tires. Derek jumped out of the back Meredith cradled in his arms running her over to the gurney.

Immediately, everyone rushed off with her gurney leaving Derek and Mark standing outside in a stupor.

Derek glanced back at his Porsche, staring at all of the blood, Meredith's blood, staining the carpet. Derek turned his back to the car and quickly lost the contents of his stomach.

Mark came up behind him and placed a comforting hand on his back. "She's going to make it." Mark asserted as Derek stood up and wiped his mouth.

"But Mark, she lost so much blood, so…so much blood…" Derek said looking down at his own clothes to see that they were saturated with Meredith's blood as well.

"Didn't you hear what she said man, she held on, she fought for you, you don't think she would fight all this time to give up now do you." Mark said. Ushering Derek inside the hospital, on their way in he tossed the car keys to an intern standing close by, "Park this." He ordered as they continued through the ER to the trauma bay.

Derek stood outside the window as everyone worked fervently on Meredith's tiny frame.

Derek tore his eyes from Meredith for a minute and looked at Mark, a thought crossing his mind.

"Mark, what time did you send Meredith home yesterday?" Derek asked tentatively.

Mark thought about it for a moment, and then responded, "I think it was around 9:00 or 10:00."

Derek suddenly felt sick again, "You don't…you don't think that…that she has been laying in a pool of her own blood, alone for that long do you?" Derek was terrified that the answer would be yes, because if he had forgiven her earlier, if he had gone home last night, if he had driven her home when she wasn't feeling well, the what if's bounced around Derek's mind relentlessly.

Mark grabbed Derek by the shoulders. "You can't blame yourself for this! It's the sick bastard that did this, he is the only one responsible for this." Mark said assertively.

Derek returned his attention to the trauma bay as they hung yet another unit of blood and watched it try to catch up with the blood that she had already lost.

All things considered Meredith was fairly stable as they worked on her, Mark turned to Derek, "We need to get changed, we'll go put on some scrubs and come right back here." Mark said looking down at both of their blood drenched outfits.

Derek looked back at Meredith and then down at himself, and agreed, he couldn't be covered with her blood anymore.

Slowly, they walked up to the locker room, ignoring the stares as they walked through the halls.

1:03pm

Meredith was fighting harder right now than anyone they had ever seen. Right now they were just waiting for blood work, to figure out how extensive her blood loss was, and in the then they were heading down to CT to see the extent of her injuries from the rear stab wound.

Avery stood outside of the lab impatiently, "Dammit I need those results for Dr. Grey it's been fifteen minutes!" He yelled as he slammed his fist down on the counter.

An attractive technician came around the corner results in hand. "Here you go." She said somewhat timidly as she handed over the papers.

"Thank You." Avery said already running back upstairs reviewing the labs as he went. The blood loss was much worse than anyone had anticipated, but it wasn't the blood loss catching Avery off guard. "Holy Shit!" He said as his pace quickened and he burst through the trauma bay door, shoving the results into Bailey's hands.

"She's pregnant!" He said out of breath, "It looks like she's about 12 weeks based on her HcG." Jackson said in complete shock. Could this get any worse?

The Chief let out a chortle and then snapped into action. "Get an ultrasound down here now, Avery go get Karev, I didn't want to involve him in this, but now that Lucy is gone he is the best we have in OB."

"Yes sir." Avery said as he dashed out the door.

"Hold on Meredith." Callie whispered in Meredith's ear, Callie remembered being on this table and whether Meredith was conscious or not she knew that Meredith would need words of encouragement to get through this right now.

1:20pm

After hearing what Avery had to say about Meredith Alex practically pushed Jackson out of the way in his sprint to get to Meredith and her baby. Inside Alex was blaming himself for all of this, if he would have just kept his mouth shut none of this would have happened, and now that Meredith forgave him something like this happens to her. Life was not fair, and both Alex and Meredith knew that first hand.

1:37pm

When Derek and Mark returned downstairs after having changed into fresh navy blue scrubs, and washing the blood off of their hands, they were both surprised to see Alex in the room performing an ultrasound on Meredith.

Without hesitation Derek burst open the door closely followed by Mark. "What's going on?" He asked trying to take everything in, he had been sure that Meredith would have been in surgery by now to repair whatever damage the stab wounds had caused.

"Derek step outside with me." The Chief ordered grabbing Derek by the arm. "No, what's going on?" Derek demanded more urgently now.

"I will tell you, but you need to step outside with me." The Chief said more sternly now. Derek took one more look at Meredith and did as he was told, "Derek, did you know that Meredith was pregnant?" Richard asked trying to read Derek's response.

"She's what?" Derek asked astounded. "Derek lab results show that she is about 12 weeks pregnant, Alex is in there right now checking to see if…well checking to see if the baby is still viable. Meredith's lab results came back showing that she lost an incredibly substantial amount of blood, so I wouldn't…well I wouldn't get your hopes up." Richard said putting his head down.

Derek was barely listening to him now as he forced his way back into the trauma bay, just in time to hear a loud and strong "whoosh…whoosh…whoosh" fill the room. Everyone let out a breath they didn't know they were holding, and Derek stepped forward his eyes glued to the ultrasound machine. He reached out a hand and touched the picture, "that's my baby." He said more to himself than anyone else.

Then he went to Meredith's side and grabbed her hand in his. "Meredith you have to live, for me, for Zola, and for our baby." Derek said tears freely falling.

Meredith didn't stir, but Derek prayed that she heard him, he couldn't imagine his life without Meredith, Zola, and this new little baby, it just wasn't possible.

After a moment of taking it all in Bailey cleared her throat. "We need to get her up to surgery now." She said pulling up the rails on the gurney and starting to push Meredith out of the trauma bay. Everyone seemed to have a hand on the gurney as it rolled down the halls, people spreading like the tides. "I love you Meredith!" Derek said again as the elevator doors closed, and he was left standing out in the hall helpless.

Meredith was in Baileys hands now.


	2. Chapter 2

Wow, thank you guys for all of the reviews, I really appreciate it. I received some really great suggestions too, on where some people want this story to go, so if you have a suggestion or review after this chapter please let me know. I had a crazy weekend, so I was unable to write, therefore this chapter is a bit shorter than the last, but I promise that the next chapter will be the same length if not longer than the first. I hope you enjoy.

Disclaimer; I don't own the rights to Greys Anatomy or any of it's characters. But I do wish I did haha.

2:00am

Owen reluctantly put his key in the door and slid it open as silently as possible. He knew that Christina would be sleeping, and he hated to wake her, but he had no choice, she needed to know.

Owen walked into the bedroom flipped off his shoes and climbed into bed with Christina, "Christina wake up…" He said gently nudging her. Groggily she opened her eyes. "What time is it?" She asked squinting to see the digital numbers on the alarm clock.

"Christina I need to talk to you." Owen said gently pulling her closer to him. "What's going on?" She asked, scared that he was going to start talking about what had happened the other day, she wasn't ready to talk about that, not yet anyway.  
>"Christina it's about Meredith." Owen said taking a pause. Christina shot up suddenly fully alert. "What about Meredith?" She asked unable to tear her eyes away from Owen trying to read him.<p>

"Meredith was attached two days ago in her home. She was stabbed in the back and her throat was slit." Owen said flashbacks of Meredith's limp body in the ER haunting his mind.

Christina's hand flew up to her mouth, "Oh God!" She screamed instantly crying and thinking the worst.

Owen immediately understood his mistake, "No, no she's alive, she's alive!" Owen said rubbing Christina's arm, trying to keep her from hyperventilating.

Christina let out a huge breath, "She's alive?" Christina asked tentatively. "Yes, yes she's alive, we were able to repair the damage, and get her vitals stable. She's in the ICU right now, but against all the odds I expect a full recovery." Owen said still in disbelief at the strength and resilience that Christina's person seemed to have.

"Tell me what happened, everything! And then I want to see her." Christina ordered, sitting up a little more and facing Owen.

"We spoke with the police, and thanks to video outside of the hospital they were able to catch the sick bastard. It was the cabbie that had taken Meredith home when she wasn't feeling well. He was a drug seeker, and her being a doctor thought she would have prescriptions in the house, he stabbed her in the back, and then after stealing some money slit her throat and left her there to die, it wasn't until yesterday afternoon that Derek and Mark had a feeling and went to the house to check on her and found her lying in the den, still conscious but blood everywhere. They rushed her into the hospital and we were able to completely stabilize her. Aside from blood loss her injuries were not as extensive as we first believed…"

Owen was still going when Christina was calculating something in her head, "Wait!" Christina interrupted. At that moment Owen knew that Christina had done the math, she was having the same thought that all of the rest of them had suffered through, when they realized what happened. "What time did Meredith go home on Tuesday?" Christina asked eyeing Owen suspiciously.

"Christina this is going to be hard to hear." Owen said not wanting Christina to be hurt any more than she had to be.

"Tell me the details." Christina demanded rage building up inside of her.

Owen did as he was told, knowing that she would find out sooner or later, and it might as well come from him.

"According to the surveillance video Meredith went home around 10:00am on Tuesday Morning." Owen said gritting his teeth, knowing that he had to continue, but not wanting to the pain of it all being too real.

Christina urged him on, "And when did Derek and Mark find Meredith?" Christina asked seething now.

Owen gulped, and then answered, "Around 9:00am on Wednesday…" He trailed off.

Christina shot out of bed, "Meredith was left there dying, lying alone in her own blood with no one for nearly 24 hours!" Christina screamed, not sure who to be mad at, but definitely furious.

"Yes…" Owen said quietly.

"We need to get to the hospital I need to see her!" Christina ordered as she ran around the room looking for her hoodie, wincing every now and then from the pain in her abdomen.

Owen rushed to her side, "Slow down, we will go, but you need to be careful, don't strain yourself." Owen said ushering Christina over to the bed and guiding her down, "Sit here, I will find you something to wear, and we will go." Owen said looking around for a jacket or sweatshirt or something for Christina to slip on.

Then he was reminded of one more thing, that pained him on a personal level as well, considering what had happened a few days ago.

When Owen came back with the hoodie and handed it to Christina he placed a hand on her leg as she pulled it on, "There's one more thing…" Owen said looking right into Christina's eyes.  
>"What is it?" Christina asked not sure how much more she could take.<p>

"Meredith is pregnant, about 3 months" Owen said hoping that this news wouldn't upset Christina too much more.

"Seriously! Wait did you say is?" Christina asked suspiciously. "Yes, I said is. The baby seems to be doing fine." Owen said, relieved by this news off his chest as well.

"Thank God, I don't think Meredith could deal with all of this, and the loss of another baby." Christina said knowing that this was a touchy subject for both of them.

"It is good news." Owen said glad that Christina was able to handle this.

"Let's go." Christina said standing up and reaching for Owen's arm. "Let's go." Owen said leading Christina downstairs and to the car.

The car ride was long and silent, but Christina kept her hand grasped around Owen's through the whole ride, as she stared out the window.

When they reached the hospital and Owen helped Christina out of the car, she paused and looked at him for a moment, "Meredith has changed." She said matter of fact.

Owen looked at her a little confused, "What do you mean?" He asked.

"Meredith has been having a really hard time lately, the thing with Alex, losing Zola, Derek hating her, losing her job, the chief taking the blame for her, what's going on with us, Meredith fell into the bay, but this time, no matter how much baggage was weighing her down she swam." Christina said looking off into space a little bit.

"What are you…?" Owen was still confused, and then he understood, he had heard stories about Meredith's drowning a few years back, how she didn't swim or something along those lines and he understood what Christina was saying.

"Yes she has changed, but then again so have you. I personally think that the twisted sisters have improved with time, like a fine wine." Owen said trying to lighten things up just a little bit.

Christina looked at Owen, "I guess we have." She said thinking back to the eight years that she and Meredith had been each others 'person'. "I love you." Christina said squeezing Owen's hand. "Thank you for saving my person!" She said pulling him into a hug, before entering the hospital.

3:30am

Derek sat by Meredith's bed side clutching her tube covered hand. "I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry!" He kept repeating over and over again. He looked completely disheveled and lost.

Just then Derek felt a twitch in his hand, and realized that Meredith was moving her hand trying to get his attention.

Immediately, he was on his feet and staring into her deep blue eyes. "Oh, Meredith!" Was all he could choke out before he collapsed gently on top of her in a light embrace not wanting to hurt her.

Meredith attempted to take a deep breath and reply, but her efforts were useless as nothing but a choking sort of sound came out. "Don't try to talk Mer, your throat needs to heal first." Derek said placing a light kiss on her lips.

Meredith gave a little smile. "Meredith I can't imagine what must have gone through your mind while you laid helpless for 22 hours, alone. If only I had come home! I'm so sorry Meredith this is all my fault!" Derek just couldn't come to forgive himself after knowing how much Meredith had suffered. Derek could hardly breathe through all of the tears, and he wasn't really one for crying in the first place.

Meredith squeezed Derek's hand to get his attention back up to her face, "Write…Pen…" Meredith mouthed. "You should be conserving your energy." Derek said not wanting her to exhaust herself. Meredith scrunched up her face. "Write…Pen…" She mouthed again this time looking more serious.

Derek agreed and retrieved a pen and some paper, placing them on a clip board, and gently setting them into her hands.

It took Meredith a long time to write her note, she was still extremely weak, and the position that she was laying in made it awkward to write legibly.

When Meredith was finished writing she handed the clip board back to Derek and relaxed her shoulders, trying to take a deep breath in through her nose, this was going to be a long recovery she thought to herself.

_Derek, _

_STOP blaming yourself! Not your fault! _

_Don't worry what I was thinking about, because I was fine with thoughts of you, Zola, and our friends keeping me company! Your faces are what got me through this. Your faces kept me from just letting go. _

_So, don't blame yourself, we all made mistakes, but this, this was the fault of the man that did it to me, and no one else. We need to get past this and heal, and conserve our energy for our next battle…getting Zola back!_

_I love you, we will get through this all of us._

_Love,  
>Meredith.<br>_

The note opened another flood gate of tears in Derek's eyes, as he squeezed her hand tightly. "I love you so much Meredith!" He said, so thankful that he had been given a chance with her again.

Then something dawned on him.

"Meredith do you know about the baby?" Derek asked in almost a whisper. Meredith looked at him confused and concerned. "Zola?" She mouthed afraid that something had happened to her.

Derek couldn't help but smile, "No Meredith, our other baby. Mer, you're pregnant!" Derek said, his tone laced with overwhelming joy.

Meredith looked at him quizzically before she pulled her hand over to her abdomen and rested her hand on her stomach.

She had been through so much though, how had her hostile uterus held onto a baby through all of this. "Baby… is …O.K.?" She whispered struggling to catch her breath when she was done asking the question

Derek looked down at her and winced a little at her difficulty breathing, but then smiled at the thought of their baby. "Yes, the baby is very healthy, about 12 weeks." Derek said proudly.

Suddenly Meredith had a new found energy as she subconsciously started rubbing circles around her stomach. Then she quickly pulled her hand away and indicated that she wanted the paper and pen back.

Derek gave it to her curious as to what she had to say. Fervently she wrote and then shoved the clipboard back into Derek's hands.

Derek read her note and couldn't help smiling from ear to ear, and feeling all of that immense intense love that he had felt for Meredith from the beginning come back in a torrent.

_This does not change anything with Zola, we are still going to fight for her with everything we've got, she is our daughter!_

"Yes, of course she is our daughter! I love you so much Meredith! You are an amazing mother!" Derek beamed.

Despite the horrors that had happened, despite the bickering, despite all the bad cards they were dealt, they still ended up with the best hand in the deck.

3:40am

Christina watched through the glass windows of the ICU the exchange going on between Derek and Meredith, she couldn't exactly tell everything that was going on behind that door, but she knew that everything and everyone would be alright.

Owen was right, she and Meredith had changed, hell all of them had changed, even the evil spawn. They were one big dysfunctional, happy family, and they had all grown up over the years, and become the people they were destined to be, and one thing was for certain they were all going to be together through everything for a very long time.

Christina was pulled away from her thoughts by Mark coming up behind her, "Pretty special aren't they?" He asked smiling at the scene in front of them.

"Yeah." Was all that Christina could get out as she continued to watch Meredith and Derek interact.

Mark still couldn't get the images of earlier out of his head, when they had found Meredith he didn't think there was any way that she was going to survive this, but she proved him wrong again, she had a tendency to do that, and he was so glad that she did, because she was the one thing in the world that made his best friend, his brother happy.

3:52am

"Ok, this is getting hard to watch with all of the gushy love stuff, I think it's time to interrupt." Christina interjected as she threw open the door to Meredith's room interrupting the love birds, followed closely by Mark, who had a big smirk on his face. He liked the way Yang did things.

"Christina…" Meredith whispered her eyes lighting up at the sight of her person.

"Don't ever scare me like that again! When I found out what happened I thought I was going to have McDreamy at my house for a year, crying his big bitch baby tears!" Christina said smiling the whole time.

Derek pushed back in his chair, alarmed but amused, and Mark burst out laughing, "Now that's funny!" He said rolling in laughter.

Christina was at Meredith side now, placing her hand on Meredith's, "Thank you for not dying…again!" Christina said sincerely.

"You know what I'm going to go and get a cup of coffee, you want to come Mark?" Derek said standing up, planting a kiss on Meredith's forehead, and ushering Mark out of the room. He knew more than anyone else, that the girls needed some alone time, just the same as he had needed alone time with Meredith. Mark figured the same and together they exited the ICU and made their way to Derek's office, where he had a very much needed bottle of scotch calling their names.


	3. Chapter 3

Thank you again for all of the reviews, I took into consideration some of the requests made and added a little something that I hope you will all enjoy. Please keep reviewing and giving suggestions. I know I promised this chapter was going to be as long as the first but it just turned into another crazy week, but if I can I will try and put out another chapter today or tomorrow.

Again, I don't own the rights to Greys Anatomy or any of its characters.

Enjoy

5:00am

When Derek and Mark returned from Derek's office, they weren't at all surprised to see Christina curled into the bed next to Meredith, Christina's hand wrapped gently around Meredith's torso, both of them fast asleep.

"Have you ever wondered…" Mark began with a dirty smirk on his face, but Derek cut him off.

"Don't even go there." Derek interrupted shaking his head at Mark.

"Just thought I would put it out there." He said laughing now.

Derek just continued to shake his head.

"Is your mind ever out of the gutter?" Derek asked seriously placing a hand on Mark's shoulder.

Mark thought about it for a moment, "Almost never. But hey you have to give me credit, I am much better than I used to be, besides I'm a father now." Mark said proudly.

Derek laughed a little, "Yes, you are doing much better, and surprisingly enough, you are an excellent father to Sofia Mark. I don't know if I tell you that enough, but I have enjoyed watching you evolve." Derek said seriously now.

Mark gave a soft smile, thinking of his beautiful Sofia, probably fast asleep at home right now, "Thanks Man." Mark said patting Derek on the back, "You are going to make a great dad too!" He said looking back through the window at Meredith.

"Who would have ever thought that we would be where we are right now, that things would change the way they did?" Mark asked staring at Meredith thinking about that first day he met Meredith, and Derek knocked his lights out.

"I find myself wondering that every day, I'm so lucky that I didn't lose Meredith on so many occasions, especially this one, when a lot of it was so much my fault." Derek said looking down, not only thinking about how devastated he would have been if he had lost Meredith, but how devastated he would have been to find out that he had lost the baby he didn't know about too. He shuddered at the thought.

"You have to quit beating yourself up Derek, it's not going to help. What you have to do is from this day forward remind Meredith every single day no matter if you've fought or had a bad day or what, you need to remind her how much you love her, and how you couldn't live without her." Mark said wisely.

Derek turned to Mark in surprise, "That was very grown up of you." Looking at his best friend in a sort of new light.

"I know." Mark said his smirk back.

Just then Owen walked up behind them and looked inside the ICU. "I will never understand it, but I'm glad whatever it is, is there." He said smiling at the sight of Meredith and Christina together.

"That's an excellent way to put it." Derek agreed as they headed down to the cafeteria to grab some breakfast, and let the girls continue to rest.

5:12am

Christina awoke to Meredith's hand batting at her frantically. Immediately, Christina shot out of bed and took in Meredith's appearance, the bandages on her neck were saturated with blood, she was pale, and clammy, and was having trouble catching her breath, Christina looked over at the monitors, her o2 levels were plummeting, and her heart rate was dropping as well.

"Does it hurt?" Christina asked looking back at Meredith. Meredith shook her head fervently. Then she mouthed the letters that Christina was fearing, "PE?"

"It's possible." Christina said as she jabbed the code button. "Don't worry we'll take you down to CT right now and catch it on time if it is." Christina said as the orderlies and nurses helped her guide Meredith's gurney to the elevators.

"Please." Meredith mouthed

"It's going to be ok, I promise!" Christina tried to assure Meredith as tears slipped down her eyes, in what seemed like an eternal elevator ride.

5:20am

As they ran out of the elevator with Meredith's gurney towards CT, Christina was snapping out orders left and right. "I need Heparin and an O2 on hand, I want to be able to administer it the moment we see the CT if it's a PE!" Christina ordered a nurse that had been running with them.

Quickly, that nurse ran off to retrieve what Dr. Yang had requested.

When they reached the CT, Christina and a couple of orderlies helped Meredith into the scanner. Christina grabbed Meredith's hand and squeezed it tightly.

"You're going to be fine!" Christina tried to assure Meredith again as she stared into Meredith's tear filled eyes, before heading into the tech room to wait for the scans.

5:36am

Derek, Mark, and Owen walked back to Meredith's room, still laughing over a conversation they had during their much needed breakfast.

As they rounded the corner into Meredith's they all froze, seemingly petrified.

After a moments processing Derek whirled around and ran to the nurses station, "Where is Dr. Grey?" He demanded breathlessly.

The nurse looked up at him reluctantly, "She is down in CT with a possible PE." The nurse replied hating to be the bearer of bad news.

In a split second Derek was sprinting down the hall towards the stairs, followed close in toe by Owen and Mark.

Derek's mind was racing, and he just prayed that they gotten to it in time if she was throwing a PE.

5:38am

"There it is, get the Heparin, and the O2 in there now!" Christina ordered as the machine started to bring Meredith back out.

Their walk turned into a run however, when the tech yelled after them that Meredith was coding.

"Don't do this dammit!" Christina cursed as she ran into the room, and yanked the paddles off of the crash cart.

"Clear!" She shouted as she pressed the paddles down to Meredith's chest, and surged an electrical shock through them.

5:39am

The men reached the CT room just in time to see Christina charging the paddles and shocking Meredith. 

A guttural "Oh!" escaped Derek's lips as he fell down to the floor, unable to watch. Owen ran into the CT bay to see if he could assist, while Mark slid down to the floor at Derek's side, in a very unfortunately familiar position.

5:40am

"We've got a rhythm. Administer the Heparin and get that Oxygen mask on her now!" Christina ordered, placing the paddles back in their holster.

"What have we got?" Owen asked coming up to Christina and examining the heart monitor.

"She threw a PE, we've just given her the Heparin, and I've got Oxygen on, do you think we should intubate since she crashed?" Christina asked visibly shaken by the whole event.

"Unfortunately, that might be best. We can give her a sedative, keep her out of it for at least the next few hours and see if her condition improves." Owen said sighing.

"Let's get her upstairs and then I will intubate her." Owen added. As they loaded her back onto her gurney, and started wheeling her out of CT.

5:43am

Derek immediately jumped up and was at Meredith's side as they wheeled her out.

"What's going on?" Derek asked his face red and blotchy, a severe contrast from just a few minutes ago.

Owen explained what had happened and what the plan was.

Derek just nodded his head in agreement and gripped Meredith's hand tightly on the way up to her room.

He wouldn't be leaving her side any time soon.

7:20am

Meredith's condition was beginning to improve. Owen had intubated and sedated her when they reached her room.

Derek was planted in the seat next to her, his head resting on her hand, silently praying that Meredith and their baby would make it through this.

Richard and Bailey stood outside of Meredith's room intently watching both Meredith and Derek, "You know sometimes I feel like we really are jinxed here, it's like drama is inexplicably drawn to all of us." Bailey said exasperatedly.

Richard turned his head and looked at Bailey. She looked exhausted, "Have you gone home since Meredith came in?" Richard asked crossing his arms.

"There's just been too much going on, and being short 3 doctors right now doesn't exactly make it the ideal time for me to go home, now does it?" Bailey snapped.

The Chief took a momentary step back and then reached forward and placed his hand on Bailey's shoulder.

"You and I both know that's not why you haven't left yet." Richard said, remembering a conversation they had yesterday.

Bailey looked down at her shoes and shuffled around a little, when she drew her head back up to look at Richard her eyes were brimming with tears. "I was so damn cold to her on the day…the day that…_this_ happened, and I don't know why I was so mad at her, I should know by now that these damned interns screw up more than I can count." Miranda said quickly wiping away any evidence of tears.

Richard looked at her and chuckled.

"What's so damn funny?" She asked looking like her usual intimidating self.

"Bailey, their not intern's anymore, they are nearly attendings, and for some reason when they _screw _up it always seems to be for the greater good. You taught them well." He said giving her a reassuring look.

"Besides, just like I told Derek repeatedly, this is not your fault. No one could have seen this coming or stopped it. All we can do from here is mend and move forward." Richard said averting his attention back to Meredith and Derek.

Bailey nodded her head in agreement, "You know what, I think I am going to go home and hug my son right now." Bailey said thinking about Tuck.

"I was hoping that was what you were going to do." Richard said beaming at her as she retreated with one last glance at Meredith.

12:00pm

Derek's thoughts were interrupted by a soft knock on the door, it was Alex.

"Shepard, I heard about what happened earlier in CT, and I think we should do another ultrasound, do you mind?" Alex asked unable to tear his eyes away from Meredith lying there so helpless in the bed.

Just like every other person in this hospital, Alex felt guilty for what had happened, but he knew that he and Meredith were magnets for this screwed up crap in the first place anyway.

"Yeah, Alex I agree." Derek said breaking Alex's train of thought.

"O.K. I'll be right back." Alex said running down the hall to retrieve the ultrasound machine.

When Alex returned he slipped around Derek and pulled up Meredith's belly revealing a nearly flat stomach. It was amazing that she was this far along and still so incredibly petite.

Alex squeezed the gel on her stomach and pulled out the wand.

Derek stood next to Meredith's head smoothing her hair back, "You should be awake for this." Derek said faintly. He had always pictured this appointment with Meredith, and her being intubated, bandaged, and unconscious, was not how it was supposed to have gone, but at least he still had her and the baby, and somewhere out there Zola was waiting for them, those realities he was thankful for.

Alex concentrated intently on the screen before him moving the wand around. "What the…" he started to say and peered closer to the monitor.

Derek immediately tensed up. "Alex what is it?" Derek said trying to get a closer look at the ultrasound.  
>"How the hell did I miss this?" Alex said more to himself than anyone, almost forgetting that Derek was standing right by him.<p>

"Alex! What is it?" Derek pleaded terrified. He had now moved around the bed and was standing right over Alex's shoulder.

"Holy Shit dude, it's twins, healthy twins!" Alex said a huge grin spread across his face as he pointed out the two babies occupying the screen.

"Twins?" Derek whispered mystified by what he was seeing.

"The possibility of twins definitely increases with the use of fertility drugs." Alex said still grinning as he pushed print on the machine.

"You're sure they are healthy?" Derek asked looking Alex directly in the eyes.

"Yeah, despite everything they look incredible. One thing though when this is all over you are going to need to force some healthy food down Meredith's throat. No more cold pizza for breakfast." Alex said laughing a little.

Somehow Alex felt giddy right now being the one to tell Derek that they were having twins. In a time of darkness, Alex was able to provide a lot of light at the end of the tunnel.

"I'll leave you four alone." Alex said bursting out laughing again as he pushed the monitor out of the room after handing Derek the picture of his twins.

Derek just stood there staring at the picture dumbstruck.

1:50pm

"What the hell are you laughing about evil spawn?" Christina asked as she April, and Lexie stood at the nurses station waiting their turn to go in and see Meredith.

"Twins!" Alex spit out unable to contain his laughter, "That's what I'm laughing at!" Alex said bursting into another fit of laughs.

"What!" Christina said in shock.

"Twins, that's so exciting!" April chimed in.

"I bet Derek can't wait to tell Mark that, somehow they will turn this into a contest once everything gets back to normal." Lexie said looking back towards Meredith and Derek.

All of them became somber as they watched Derek quietly crying seemingly telling Meredith's unconscious form about the twins.

Without another word all of them dispersed wanting to give them their moment alone.


	4. Chapter 4

Thank you again for all of your excellent reviews. Sorry I'm not better at updating, days go by so fast anymore. Don't forget please keep reviewing, and giving suggestions for what you would like to see happen next.

I don't own Greys Anatomy or the rights to it, or any of its characters.

Enjoy

1:00pm

It was 72 hours later when Meredith awoke to something rough bristling against her already sensitive hand.

As Meredith peeled her eyes open, the brightness of the sun washing through the hospital window was blinding, causing her to immediately snap her eyes shut.

Attempting to take a breath to prepare herself for opening her eyes again she realized that something was seemingly choking her and burning down her throat. After a moment of terror Meredith realized that she must be intubated, Meredith relaxed just a little knowing that the sooner she could get someone's attention the sooner she could get this severely uncomfortable tubing out of her throat.

Slowly, Meredith opened her eyes again, suffering through the brightness until her eyes adjusted and she was able to take in the room.

Her mind was brought back to the sandpaper feeling against her hand that had originally woken her up, so she turned her attention in that direction, only to find a shaggy, disheveled looking Derek sleeping on her hand, with a scraggly beard and deep bags under his eyes, despite his appearance though she was glad to have him here by her side.

Once her thoughts slowed down a little Meredith began wiggling her hand to try and wake up Derek and it worked like gem, Derek shot up wide awake and immediately began reading Meredith's stats on the monitor before turning his deep blue eyes, stunned that his gaze was met by hers.

Looking into Meredith's eyes was something that Derek had been longing for, for three days now, and here that moment was and he couldn't be happier to have her sparkling blues looking back at him.

"Hi" He said unable to say more as he leaned closer to her running his hand through her hair.

Meredith pulled her hand up to her mouth and made the motion to have the ventilator pulled out.

Derek turned back to the monitor to review her O2 levels again, and after feeling satisfied with them agreed to pull it out.

"Cough." Derek instructed as he intubated her in one fluid motion.

Meredith continued coughing for a minute, rubbing her throat trying to rid herself of that deep burning sensation.

As Meredith rubbed her throat her hands caught the bandage on her neck. For a minute Meredith had forgotten everything that had happened, but it all came back in a rush of tears.

Immediately, Derek was at her side in the bed, spooning her careful not to hurt her or disrupt any of the tubes and wires. "It's ok, you're ok" He soothed.

2:10pm

It was some time before Meredith finally calmed down and ended up falling asleep in Derek's arms.

Derek was thankful however for this mental break, it meant that she wasn't keeping this horrific event locked up inside her, insisting on telling everyone she was _fine._

Derek just lay there with her, overwhelmingly happy to have her cradled in his arms.

4:00pm

It was a couple of hours before Meredith woke up, and when she finally did she was surrounded by many of her closest family and friends, all sprawled out in different places throughout the room.

Derek was still in bed with her, Christina was in the chair that Derek had once occupied, Mark was leaning against the wall, staring at Lexi who was cuddled into Jackson's arms on the sofa, Alex was sitting at the table texting, while April sat in the chair next to him, reading something that Meredith couldn't quite make out.

It was Mark who first noticed that Meredith was awake. "Well good morning sunshine." Mark boomed coming closer to her side.

Everyone immediately perked up, at the realization that Meredith was awake. All of them giving her their best smiles.

"Good Morning." She mouthed with a slight smile.

Derek perked up quickly, hopping out of bed and straightening his clothes out, a little embarrassed that everyone was in there while he was in bed with Meredith.

Alex looked at Derek with a mischievous grin on his face, "Can I tell her?" Alex asked eagerly.

April slapped him on the arm, "Alex!" She spat, "Derek should get to tell her." April sternly said looking back at Dr. Shepard for approval.

Derek chuckled a little, "You know what Alex, it was your find, you tell her." Derek said proudly.

Alex's grin couldn't have gotten any bigger as he went over to a very confused looking Meredith.  
>"Dude, you are never going to believe what I am about to tell you…" Alex started practically jumping out of his skin with excitement.<p>

"WHAT?" Meredith mouthed, completely unsure of what was going on.

"Twins! That's what!" Alex burst out.

Meredith snapped her head over to Derek for confirmation, but she didn't need to as she listened to all of the laughs coming from everyone in the room.

Derek just nodded, and knelt down at her side. "Twins." He said as he placed a loving hand on Meredith's abdomen.

"Twins…" She whispered dreamily, tears pricking her eyes now.

5:56pm

Everyone but Derek had just left Meredith's room after having spent some time in there just carrying on various conversations, keeping away from the heavy, but making sure to let Meredith know that they all loved her.

When it was just Meredith and Derek again, Meredith tugged on Derek to come down to her mouth, so she could whisper in her ear. "We're having twins." She whispered, a slight twinge of fear laced in her words.

Derek looked down at Meredith his eyes glittering with excitement. "Yes we are, and they are going to be the perfect siblings for Zola." He said reassuringly.

This made Meredith smile, "Yes, yes they are." Meredith said beginning to doze off.

9:00am

After a few more days of recuperation Meredith was sent home to mend, with an unfortunate three weeks of required bed rest.

Meredith sat in the wheelchair, her bag in hand, eager to leave the hospital and the sympathetic stares that went along with her stay here.

Derek came into the room, another of Meredith's bags draped over his shoulder. "Are you ready?" Derek asked tentatively.

It wasn't that Derek didn't want her home, he did, but he was terrified that something else could happen or go wrong, not only with her but with the twins too, and they would be so far from the hospital when it happened, it wasn't until Derek was in the back of his car, applying pressure to Meredith's wounds, trying to keep her from bleeding out, that he realized just how far her house was from the hospital, and what's worse the house they were building in the woods was even further, this all made Derek very nervous.

"More than ready." Meredith wrote on the little white board that she clasped in her hand.

Meredith was coming around to speaking again, but the pain it caused in her throat was still fairly substantial, so she opted to use the whiteboard that Lexie had generously given her.

"O.K. then here we go." Derek said as he lifted the break on the wheelchair and began to guide her out of the hospital.

Surprisingly to her, Meredith was met with claps and cheers from various doctors and nurses lining the hallways.

Meredith blushed unsure of how to act with this kind of attention, but one thing was for certain, it made her feel very loved.

When they got downstairs and Derek rolled Meredith over to the car, she was surprised to see that it wasn't Derek's Porsche Carrera, this was a Porsche, but a whole different kind and color.

"What's this?" Meredith asked with her whiteboard shoved in Derek's face as he began loading her things in the back seat of this mystery car.

"It's a Porsche Cayenne Coup." Derek said matter of fact.

Meredith took a deep breath and exhaled in frustration as she began fervently writing a new question on the whiteboard.

"Where's the other Porsche?" The sign read with multiple questions marks.

Derek sighed, "I got rid of it, it…it was tainted." Derek said his eyes flashing off to the not so distant memory of Meredith bleeding to death in the back of it.

The day they brought Meredith in he remembered going down to the car to get his wallet, but when he opened the door, Meredith's blood was there glaring back at him, and it was everywhere. He would never be able to look at that car again without thinking about Meredith dying in his arms.

Derek asked Mark to take care of this with the dealer and within a matter of hours Derek had this shiny black coup parked in his spot.

It had taken a moment for Meredith to understand what Derek meant by "tainted", but then she remembered that this had been their make-shift ambulance and she completely understood.

Dropping the subject, Derek assisted Meredith into her seat, returned the wheelchair, and then they were on their way home.

But there was something that everyone had completely overlooked.

10:40am

It was a long car ride home and between the pain medication, the pregnancy, and the excitement of the day Meredith had fallen asleep halfway there.

When they arrived at the house Derek didn't want to disturb her so he gently scooped her up in his arms and carried her in the house and up to the bed, tucking her in with a kiss before heading back outside to retrieve her things.

2:00pm

When Meredith finally awoke, she looked around the room in confusion before realizing that she was home. She wondered where Derek was and decided to venture downstairs to find him.

Getting out of bed was slightly difficult, she was still sore from the surgery on her back, and it shot pain through her body as she stood up, she waited a moment for the pain to pass before making her way to the stairs.

Once Meredith had descended the stairs, she looked around for Derek and didn't see him, and then she heard a noise coming from the study.

Slowly, Meredith walked in that direction, and gently pushed the door open. Meredith froze.

There Derek was sitting in his office chair crying, but it wasn't that, that had Meredith frozen in place, it was the large red blood stain spread throughout the carpet. She could tell that someone had tried to clean it as best they could, probably April, but Meredith was terrified, all of a sudden she could feel the taxi driver standing behind her, his hot breath on her neck, the cold blade pressed against her throat.

Meredith screamed out for help, Derek jumped up in his chair, and was at Meredith's side in a second, "Meredith! Meredith!" Derek yelled her name, gently shaking her, trying to get her out of this trance she was in. It wasn't working though, Meredith just stood there, staring straight ahead, blankly, screaming bloody murder.

Derek couldn't take it anymore, he scooped Meredith up in his arms, and ran outside with her to the car, putting her in the passenger seat.

Then he jumped in the driver seat and looked over at Meredith who had stopped screaming, and then just like that she snapped out of it and looked at Derek with tear filled eyes.

"Derek, I can't go back in there." Meredith whispered, embarrassed.

Her throat was on fire from all of the screaming, and she was suddenly so tired, this whole thing had just drained her of any energy she may have had.

"We'll go, We'll go right now." Derek said assuring.

"I need to go inside and get my keys, I will come back for anything else we may need. Are you going to be ok?" Derek asked not wanting to leave her, but having no other choice.

Meredith nodded that she would be ok, and like a bolt of lightning Derek ran in the house for his eyes, and a minute later he was running back to the car with them in hand, starting up the car, and reversing away from the house.

4:20pm

Originally, Meredith had wanted to stay at the trailer, but Derek wasn't going to let Meredith be that far away from the hospital

When they pulled up to where Meredith said she wanted to stay, Derek paused for a moment, "Are you sure this is where you want to stay?" Derek asked somewhat confused by her choice. He was sure that she would have picked Christina, or a hotel to stay at.

Meredith nodded, and Derek shut off the car, coming around to Meredith's side to let her out.

When they exited the elevator and walked down the hall, taking baby steps for Meredith's back, they knocked on a baby blue door, which opened only moments later to a grinning Mark Sloan.

"Welcome!" Mark said having spoken to Derek on their way into town asking if they could stay there for a bit.

Derek and Mark helped Meredith over to the couch, where she sat down eagerly, even walking from the car to Mark's door had been exhausting.

"I'm honored that you chose to say with me." Mark said, jokingly, but Derek could tell that this meant a lot to him.

"Meredith was very adamant about asking if we could stay with you, you helped save her life, besides we're close to the hospital." Derek said, looking over at Meredith who had already fallen asleep on the couch.

"I need to run to the house and pick up a few things, will you be ok watching her for a little bit?" Derek asked walking over and placing a kiss on Meredith's forehead.

"You forget that I am a world renowned surgeon myself, and very capable of looking after a patient." Mark said scoffing.

"She better not have a boob job when I get back." Derek said laughing.

Mark wacked Derek on the arm. "So little faith." Mark said snickering as he let Derek out.

"Just take care of her." Derek said seriously as he descended down the hall.

5:15pm

It wasn't long after Derek left that Meredith woke up.

"Well hello sleeping beauty." Mark said noticing Meredith stir.

"Morning…" Meredith mouthed as she stretched.

"I have a surprise for you." Mark said walking around the back of the couch and reaching down for something.

Meredith's face lit up when she saw what the surprise was.

"Sofia!" Meredith whispered, so excited to see the beautiful little girl.

"I thought you could use some baby therapy." Mark said looking down proudly at his daughter.

"Thank You!" Meredith mouthed, as she pulled Sofia into her arms, cooing and tickling the infant, who giggled back at her in response.

7:18pm

When Derek returned, he was surprised to see Meredith wide awake, and glowing. Then he realized why she looked so happy, cradled in her arms, was baby Sofia.

Derek looked over at Mark who was beaming.

"Thank You! I think this is exactly what she needed." Derek said, setting down his things and walking over to Meredith and Sofia, joining in the play session.

Things were going to be alright Derek could feel it deep down inside.

Their next focus needed to be on how to get Zola back to complete their little family.


End file.
